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"Supreme Court vacated a stay of execution that would have provided a federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia time to consider issues regarding the legality of Higgs’ execution date. It was the 17 th stay of execution lifted by federal appeals courts during the execution spree. The execution was the 13 th conducted by the federal government over a 186-day period in which no state in the Union executed a single prisoner. The execution spree was unequaled in its size and duration, surpassing the 12 consecutive executions carried out over a span of 91 days by Texas between January 10 and April 11, 2007. Breyer noted that the majority had sided with the federal government on every appeal and every request to vacate stays of execution over the course of the execution spree. Justice Sotomayor wrote, “After waiting almost two decades to resume federal executions, the Government should have proceeded with some measure of restraint to ensure it did so lawfully. Over the objection of the Navajo nation and Native American leaders across the country, the federal government executed Navajo citizen Lezmond Mitchell on August 26, the sole Native-American prisoner on federal death row. It included: The first execution of a woman by the federal government in 67 years; The execution of two prisoners accused of murders committed in their teens, the two youngest offenders executed by the federal government in 68 years; The first time in U.S. history the federal government executed a Native American for an offense committed against fellow tribe members on tribal lands; The most federal civilian executions in a single year since 1896, at a time states were carrying out the fewest executions in 37 years; The most executions during a presidential transition period in the history of the United States; Scheduling executions during the middle of the worst pandemic in more than a century and flouting public health safeguards as they were being carried out; Executions carried out while appeals remained pending or despite court rulings that the execution protocol and process were unlawful or unconstitutional; Executions of two intellectually disabled prisoners, despite no judicial consideration of their cases using clinically appropriate standards of review; Executions of two mentally ill prisoners without any judicial review of their competency to be executed; Post-midnight executions of four prisoners after their execution dates had passed, pursuant to new executions notices of questionable legal and constitutional validity; Leaving one prisoner strapped to the gurney for four hours while federal prosecutors filed pleadings to vacate his stay of execution; Executing two prisoners who had contracted COVID-19."
<https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/this-is-not-justice-federal-execution-spree-ends-with-planned-execution-of-african-american-on-martin-luther-king-jr-s-birthday>